1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gene-specific inhibition of gene expression by double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA).
2. Description of the Related Art
Targeted inhibition of gene expression has been a long-felt need in biotechnology and genetic engineering. Although a major investment of effort has been made to achieve this goal, a more comprehensive solution to this problem was still needed.
Classical genetic techniques have been used to isolate mutant organisms with reduced expression of selected genes. Although valuable, such techniques require laborious mutagenesis and screening programs, are limited to organisms in which genetic manipulation is well established (e.g., the existence of selectable markers, the ability to control genetic segregation and sexual reproduction), and are limited to applications in which a large number of cells or organisms can be sacrificed to isolate the desired mutation. Even under these circumstances, classical genetic techniques can fail to produce mutations in specific target genes of interest, particularly when complex genetic pathways are involved. Many applications of molecular genetics require the ability to go beyond classical genetic screening techniques and efficiently produce a directed change in gene expression in a specified group of cells or organisms. Some such applications are knowledge-based projects in which it is of importance to understand what effects the loss of a specific gene product (or products) will have on the behavior of the cell or organism. Other applications are engineering based, for example: cases in which is important to produce a population of cells or organisms in which a specific gene product (or products) has been reduced or removed. A further class of applications is therapeutically based in which it would be valuable for a functioning organism (e.g., a human) to reduce or remove the amount of a specified gene product (or products). Another class of applications provides a disease model in which a physiological function in a living organism is genetically manipulated to reduce or remove a specific gene product (or products) without making a permanent change in the organism's genome.
In the last few years, advances in nucleic acid chemistry and gene transfer have inspired new approaches to engineer specific interference with gene expression. These approaches are described below.
Use of Antisense Nucleic Acids to Engineer Interference
Antisense technology has been the most commonly described approach in protocols to achieve gene-specific interference. For antisense strategies, stoichiometric amounts of single-stranded nucleic acid complementary to the messenger RNA for the gene of interest are introduced into the cell. Some difficulties with antisense-based approaches relate to delivery, stability, and dose requirements. In general, cells do not have an uptake mechanism for single-stranded nucleic acids, hence uptake of unmodified single-stranded material is extremely inefficient. While waiting for uptake into cells, the single-stranded material is subject to degradation. Because antisense interference requires that the interfering material accumulate at a relatively high concentration (at or above, the concentration of endogenous mRNA), the amount required to be delivered is a major constraint on efficacy. As a consequence, much of the effort in developing antisense technology has been focused on the production of modified nucleic acids that are both stable to nuclease digestion and able to diffuse readily into cells. The use of antisense interference for gene therapy or other whole-organism applications has been limited by the large amounts of oligonucleotide that need to be synthesized from non-natural analogs, the cost of such synthesis, and the difficulty even with high doses of maintaining a sufficiently concentrated and uniform pool of interfering material in each cell.
Triple-Helix Approaches to Engineer Interference
A second, proposed method for engineered interference is based on a triple helical nucleic acid structure. This approach relies on the rare ability of certain nucleic acid populations to adopt a triple-stranded structure. Under physiological conditions, nucleic acids are virtually all single- or double-stranded, and rarely if ever form triple-stranded structures. It has been known for some time, however, that certain simple purine- or pyrimidine-rich sequences could form a triple-stranded molecule in vitro under extreme conditions of pH (i.e., in a test tube). Such structures are generally very transient under physiological conditions, so that simple delivery of unmodified nucleic acids designed to produce triple-strand structures does not yield interference. As with antisense, development of triple-strand technology for use in vivo has focused on the development of modified nucleic acids that would be more stable and more readily absorbed by cells in vivo. An additional goal in developing this technology has been to produce modified nucleic acids for which the formation of triple-stranded material proceeds effectively at physiological pH.
Co-Suppression Phenomena and Their Use in Genetic Engineering
A third approach to gene-specific interference is a set of operational procedures grouped under the name “co-suppression”. This approach was first described in plants and refers to the ability of transgenes to cause silencing of an unlinked but homologous gene. More recently, phenomena similar to co-suppression have been reported in two animals: C. elegans and Drosophila. Co-suppression was first observed by accident, with reports coming from groups using transgenes in attempts to achieve over-expression of a potentially useful locus. In some cases the over-expression was successful while, in many others, the result was opposite from that expected. In those cases, the transgenic plants actually showed less expression of the endogenous gene. Several mechanisms have so far been proposed for transgene-mediated co-suppression in plants; all of these mechanistic proposals remain hypothetical, and no definitive mechanistic description of the process has been presented. The models that have been proposed to explain co-suppression can be placed in two different categories. In one set of proposals, a direct physical interaction at the DNA- or chromatin-level between two different chromosomal sites has been hypothesized to occur; an as-yet-unidentified mechanism would then lead to de novo methylation and subsequent suppression of gene expression. Alternatively, some have postulated an RNA intermediate, synthesized at the transgene locus, which might then act to produce interference with the endogenous gene. The characteristics of the interfering RNA, as well as the nature of the interference process, have not been determined. Recently, a set of experiments with RNA viruses have provided some support for the possibility of RNA intermediates in the interference process. In these experiments, a replicating RNA virus is modified to include a segment from a gene of interest. This modified virus is then tested for its ability to interfere with expression of the endogenous gene. Initial results with this technique have been encouraging, however, the properties of the viral RNA that are responsible for interference effects have not been determined and, in any case, would be limited to plants which are hosts of the plant virus.
Distinction Between the Present Invention and Antisense Approaches
The present invention differs from antisense-mediated interference in both approach and effectiveness. Antisense-mediated genetic interference methods have a major challenge: delivery to the cell interior of specific single-stranded nucleic acid molecules at a concentration that is equal to or greater than the concentration of endogenous mRNA. Double-stranded RNA-mediated inhibition has advantages both in the stability of the material to be delivered and the concentration required for effective inhibition. Below, we disclose that in the model organism C. elegans, the present invention is at least 100-fold more effective than an equivalent antisense approach (i.e., dsRNA is at least 100-fold more effective than the injection of purified antisense RNA in reducing gene expression). These comparisons also demonstrate that inhibition by double-stranded RNA must occur by a mechanism distinct from antisense interference.
Distinction Between the Present Invention and Triple-Helix Approaches
The limited data on triple strand formation argues against the involvement of a stable triple-strand intermediate in the present invention. Triple-strand structures occur rarely, if at all, under physiological conditions and are limited to very unusual base sequence with long runs of purines and pyrimidines. By contrast, dsRNA-mediated inhibition occurs efficiently under physiological conditions, and occurs with a wide variety of inhibitory and target nucleotide sequences. The present invention has been used to inhibit expression of 18 different genes, providing phenocopies of null mutations in these genes of known function. The extreme environmental and sequence constraints on triple-helix formation make it unlikely that dsRNA-mediated inhibition in C. elegans is mediated by a triple-strand structure.
Distinction Between Present Invention and Co-Suppression Approaches
The transgene-mediated genetic interference phenomenon called co-suppression may include a wide variety of different processes. From the viewpoint of application to other types of organisms, the co-suppression phenomenon in plants is difficult to extend. A confounding aspect in creating a general technique based on co-suppression is that some transgenes in plants lead to suppression of the endogenous locus and some do not. Results in C. elegans and Drosophila indicate that certain transgenes can cause interference (i.e., a quantitative decrease in the activity of the corresponding endogenous locus) but that most transgenes do not produce such an effect. The lack of a predictable effect in plants, nematodes, and insects greatly limits the usefulness of simply adding transgenes to the genome to interfere with gene expression. Viral-mediated co-suppression in plants appears to be quite effective, but has a number of drawbacks. First, it is not clear what aspects of the viral structure are critical for the observed interference. Extension to another system would require discovery of a virus in that system which would have these properties, and such a library of useful viral agents are not available for many organisms. Second, the use of a replicating virus within an organism to effect genetic changes (e.g., long- or short-term gene therapy) requires considerably more monitoring and oversight for deleterious effects than the use of a defined nucleic acid as in the present invention.
The present invention avoids the disadvantages of the previously-described methods for genetic interference. Several advantages of the present invention are discussed below, but numerous others will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the biotechnology and genetic engineering arts.